Broyles says soreness in his knee is subsiding

The Lions aren’t in any rush to get Broyles on the field. They drafted him knowing that it was going to be a slow process.

Lions rookie receiver Ryan Broyles was all dressed up with nowhere to go Sunday night in San Francisco. The Lions’ rookie receiver was active for Sunday’s game against the 49ers for the first time as a professional, but had only an emergency role in the game plan and did not play.

Broyles is still less than 100-percent after suffering a torn ACL last November, but he says he’s getting closer. He can say that definitively because he says the soreness in his left knee is starting to become less prevalent and he’s now able to do a little more each week.

“I’m starting to do a little bit extra every day so I feel like that’s going to help me in time,” Broyles said after Thursday’s practice. “That’s what I was doing at Oklahoma. I was able to do extra when I was hurt.

When Broyles began training camp there were times when he would call it a day midway through practice to ice his knee. During the regular season, he's been a full participant in practice and been able to do more and more each week. It's still not where he'd like it to be, but Broyles says he's seeing the progress.

It’s been the soreness -- which is normal following ACL surgery -- that has prevented him from hitting the weight room as hard as he’d like or spending the extra time on the field.

“I have to say about six months out I felt the biggest difference,” he said. “I felt like I was good to go at six months, but compared to now, it was (way different).

“The strength is really the biggest thing. When you have pain you really can’t go in (the weight room) and put heavy weight on it. I’m doing 10 pounds here and 10 pounds there and to be on the football field you can’t really do that. The more the pain goes away the stronger you can get.”

The Lions aren’t in any rush to get Broyles on the field. They drafted him knowing that it was going to be a slow process.

“From the very get-go our plan was to not rush him on the field,” said Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan. “He’s getting closer. He could play some if we wanted to him to play and we might. We haven’t decided that.”

Broyles’ role for Sunday’s game in Tennessee could be dictated by the health of tight end Tony Scheffler, who’s missed the last two days of practice with a calf injury. If Scheffler doesn’t play, the Lions are likely to change up some packages on offense and that could potentially include Broyles more in the game plan, though Linehan said Thursday none of that has been decided yet.

“I’m not sure with a slot receiver and a tight end, the carryover might be someone else, it might be him,” said Linehan when asked what Scheffler’s potential absence Sunday would mean for Broyles. “We haven’t decided exactly how we’re going to divvy up the playing time on that. We’ll see.”

Ever since he got to Detroit, Broyles has been saying that he’ll be ready to play when his number is called.

“If any guy goes down, especially with Tony being a receiver-type of player, it definitely opens things up for guys,” Broyles said.

“Like I’ve been saying all along, when my time comes I’ll be ready, so if I’m the next guy in, I’ll be ready for it.”